In this reflection, I want to share insights from my coding journey, along with some of my practices and statistics.
Your feedback and advice are greatly valued!

Goal
My goal(short term) is to Build Projects, Diversify Knowledge (especially in development section), Contribute to Open Source,
Deepen Understanding. I'm doing my best to get at a good level to Built projects. By good level I mean in choosing Projects,
writing Quality Code and mastering the usual suspects data structures, and most relevant algorithms for striking problems.

Solved Problems
easy - 42
medium - 56
hard - 2

Time spent per question
Easy problems (~ 1h - 2h)
solving 30m to 1h
solutions 30m - 1h

Medium problems (~3h30)
solving 2h00
solutions 1h30

Hard Problems (If I can solve them ~7h)
solving +5h
solutions +2h

But the recommended time was from 15 to 45 minutes.
15 to easy
30 to medium
45 to hard.

Contest
My first contest was 384 (virtual).
It was very important to me, because I was thinking that I was doing great on code problems, but not even close.I only made one question on time.I only did the easy question.
for the next medium question I took more time than the full contest.
Actually I didnt solved it at all. (I'll solve it later). I took a lot of time to get the program compiling had a lot of troubles debuging.
The most valuable lessons from the contest were:

1. I'm too slow
2. I cannot debug my code very well without IDE
3. I need to keep doing this contest exercises because they are a cool random source of exercises
4. there are very well prepared people! I need to practice more!

Getting It Right At First Attempt
I was not able at all of getting a solution right at first attempt. I'm still not able of doing it. Even when I got the approach I didn't know how to proceed for a certain problem.
I very often fail at first submission/run for some case. What I try to do is to follow a procedure to verify if all my testcases are covered, reviewing the code one last time.
And every time i just came across some of my common mistakes (like i mess up with the 'string' and 'char') almost in my every code. and maybe you can relate it too.
Maybe as I get more experienced I can get it right more often.

Revisiting Questions
Earlier I used to do a question once and never visited again.But later i found this philosophy to be fatal. In the begining I did not care about my solution that whether it is and optimal or not,
just submitting the code matters to me at that time. I considered watching soltion as a cheating and didn't even watch the solutions (first 40-50 questions) if my solution beats 100% I just moved.
I battled for 1h30 to come um with a weak non optimized solution. that was the moment I realized that I needed to review my previous questions, specially If I didn't implemented an optimal solution
and still I have not completly resolve it till today.

A strategy for reviewing questions.
Spaced repetition is a technique where you revisit a problem or topic at specific intervals, like every 10 questions you solve. It helps you become more familiar with the logic and concepts behind the
problem, rather than just memorizing the code. So, even if you can't solve the problem right away, by revisiting it regularly, you can improve your understanding and ability to solve it over time. I use
this technique personally and is really helpful.

Solving Problem's Process
My process might be quite inefficient, but as a beginner these worked upon me:

• Manual Problem Solving
• Note it down (the thought process and actions).
• Find Patterns.
• Manual Verification.
• Code Translation.
• Test Case Execution (Dry run).
• Debug Failed Test Cases.

1. Sometimes, even easy questions leave me stuck, even after I've looked at the solution. I try to understand it step by step, write it down, and then try to solve it myself before going back to
   platforms like LeetCode.
2. Despite studying solutions, certain problems still present a challenge in grasping their inner workings.
3. It feels like I have understood the problem but the second time when I come back to it, I get the logic but I am unable to code it. I am like again stuck.
4. I'm worried that I might be memorizing solutions instead of really understanding them.
   I'm not trying to speed through this process, but I am dedicated to solving at least one problem every day.
   

Managing Emotions
Learning to code has been quite the ride, filled with ups and downs. Earlier during this journey I fell into a harmful pattern of working too hard to prove myself, which made me burn out and perform poorly.
It took hitting rock bottom for me to understand that it's okay to fail. My main aim is to learn, not to constantly prove myself. This change in thinking has helped me accept setbacks as part of the learning process.
but I've learned a few things that might help you out too:-

1. First off, let me tell you, it's totally normal to feel overwhelmed sometimes. Coding can be tricky, and it's okay to struggle. But trust me, every little challenge you face will pay off later.
2. Coding requires immense patience. I've learned to break down big problems into smaller. And you know what? finally understanding a concept or getting a function to work, feels amazing.
3. Bugs and errors used to really frustrate me (but those helps me in noticing edge cases).
4. Programming is a marathon, not a sprint, so taking a break is okay. If you don't take a break your brain won't save your progress. Most of the time, I stumbled upon an approach while wandering around.

Keep coding, keep learning, and don't forget to enjoy the ride!

Please Feel Free To Feedback Me
Hope you enjoyed the read.
If you have advice for me, please I'm all ears!

Have a nice day